Illinois has passed the “Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act.” The details of the Act are as follows:
- Employers with at least 16 employees and no more than 50 employees must provide a maximum of 10 days of unpaid neonatal intensive care leave to an employee while any child of the employee is a patient in a neonatal intensive care unit.
- Employers with 51 or more employees must provide a maximum of 20 such days of leave.
- Leave may be taken continually or intermittently at the employee’s selection. An employer may require that leave be taken in minimum increments of not less than 2 hours in duration.
- Leave taken under the Act is in addition to leave available to employees under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
- While taking leave under the Act, an employee cannot be required to use other forms of available paid time off but may choose to do so.
- Upon the conclusion of leave taken under the Act, an employee must be reinstated to his or her former position or a substantially equivalent one with no loss of benefits held or accrued prior to taking leave. During the period of leave, any health insurance benefits must be maintained as if an employee had not taken leave.
- Employees who use unpaid neonatal intensive care leave are not required to provide a replacement worker.
- Employers may require reasonable verification of the employee’s child’s length of stay in a neonatal intensive care unit. As part of a reasonable verification, an employer may not request any confidential information protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or other law.
The Act is effective beginning June 1, 2026. You can access the enacted bill here.